The present invention relates to a handwriting input method, and more particularly, to a candidate selection method for handwriting input.
As an input method, handwriting input has been widely used in a variety of information terminal devices. In handwriting input, handwritten strokes are recognized as a character or a command by an algorithm of pattern recognition. Due to the variations in drawing the strokes and the imperfectness of the recognition capability, it can be difficult for handwriting software to correctly recognize the handwritten input information all the time. For this reason, when displaying the recognized character, the handwriting software typically provides several candidates for user's selection. When selection of the character is performed in a handwriting manner, a typical method is to designate a dedicated key or place the candidates in a designated area that can be click selected such that the user can make a selection by pressing the key or clicking the candidates. In these methods, however, the user is required to accurately locate the key and the click selection area and, therefore, both the user's attention and the handwriting pen may move away from a handwriting area. After the selection, the user needs to move his/her attention and the handwriting pen back to the handwriting area for handwriting of further information. During the handwriting process, the user may have to move his/her attention and handwriting pen back-and-forth between the handwriting area and the click selection area or the selection key, which can be very inconvenience and significantly lower the handwriting input speed. What is needed, therefore, is a candidate selection method for handwriting input which can overcome the problem existed in the current handwriting input method.